Tuesday, January 1, 2008

"...Correa is one of the first dark-skinned men to win election to this Quechua and mixed-race nation. Certainly, one of the first from the streets. He’d won a surprise victory over the richest man in Ecuador, the owner of the biggest banana plantation.

Doctor Correa, I should say, with a Ph.D in economics earned in Europe. Professor Correa as he is officially called - who, until not long ago, taught at the University of Illinois.

And Professor Doctor Correa is one tough character. He told George Bush to take the US military base and stick it where the equatorial sun don’t shine. He told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which held Ecuador’s finances by the throat, to go to hell. He ripped up the “agreements” which his predecessors had signed at financial gun point. He told the Miami bond vultures that were charging Ecuador usurious interest, to eat their bonds. He said ‘We are not going to pay off this debt with the hunger of our people. ” Food first, interest later. Much later. And he meant it.

It was a stunning performance. I’d met two years ago with his predecessor, President Alfredo Palacio, a man of good heart, who told me, looking at the secret IMF agreements I showed him, “We cannot pay this level of debt. If we do, we are DEAD. And if we are dead, how can we pay?” Palacio told me that he would explain this to George Bush and Condoleezza Rice and the World Bank, then headed by Paul Wolfowitz. He was sure they would understand. They didn’t. They cut off Ecuador at the knees.

But Ecuador didn’t fall to the floor. Correa, then Economics Minister, secretly went to Hugo Chavez Venezuela’s president and obtained emergency financing. Ecuador survived.

And thrived. But Correa was not done.

Elected President, one of his first acts was to establish a fund for the Ecuadoran refugees in America - to give them loans to return to Ecuador with a little cash and lot of dignity. And there were other dragons to slay. He and Palacio kicked US oil giant Occidental Petroleum out of the country.

Correa STILL wasn’t done.

I’d returned from a very wet visit to the rainforest - by canoe to a Cofan Indian village in the Amazon where there was an epidemic of childhood cancers. The indigenous folk related this to the hundreds of open pits of oil sludge left to them by Texaco Oil, now part of Chevron, and its partners. I met the Cofan’s chief. His three year old son swam in what appeared to be contaminated water then came out vomiting blood and died.

Correa had gone there too, to the rainforest, though probably in something sturdier than a canoe. And President Correa announced that the company that left these filthy pits would pay to clean them up.

But it’s not just any company he was challenging. Chevron’s largest oil tanker was named after a long-serving member of its Board of Directors, the Condoleezza. Our Secretary of State.

The Cofan have sued Condi’s corporation, demanding the oil company clean up the crap it left in the jungle. The cost would be roughly $12 billion. Correa won’t comment on the suit itself, a private legal action. But if there’s a verdict in favor of Ecuador’s citizens, Correa told me, he will make sure Chevron pays up.

Is he kidding? No one has ever made an oil company pay for their slop. Even in the USA, the Exxon Valdez case drags on to its 18th year. Correa is not deterred.

He told me he would create an international tribunal to collect, if necessary. In retaliation, he could hold up payments to US companies who sue Ecuador in US courts.

This is hard core. No one - NO ONE - has made such a threat to Bush and Big Oil and lived to carry it out.

And, in an office tower looking down on Quito, the lawyers for Chevron were not amused. I met with them.

[...]

Correa’s not unique. He’s the latest of a new breed in Latin America. Lula, President of Brazil, Evo Morales, the first Indian ever elected President of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. All “Leftists,” as the press tells us. But all have something else in common: they are dark-skinned working-class or poor kids who found themselves leaders of nations of dark-skinned people who had forever been ruled by an elite of bouffant blonds.

When I was in Venezuela, the leaders of the old order liked to refer to Chavez as, “the monkey.” Chavez told me proudly, “I am negro e indio” - Black and Indian, like most Venezuelans. Chavez, as a kid rising in the ranks of the blond-controlled armed forces, undoubtedly had to endure many jeers of “monkey.” Now, all over Latin America, the “monkeys” are in charge.

TEHRAN (PIN) – Head of Oil Pension Fund Tuesday announced that oil and economy ministers were holding talks on the setup of Oil Bourse and the center would become operational in the near future.

Mehdi Karbassian talking to PIN quoted Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari as saying that his talks with Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davud Danesh-Ja’fari on the running of the Oil Bourse would be finalized soon...

A momentum is building that may profoundly impact the coming election as well as the long term future of America. What is odd is that it comes in the form of an action-fiction novel. New York Times best selling author, Steven Alten, has written a spell-binding action novel, which brilliantly is interwoven with REAL media reports and research that leads the reader to understand we've been lied to about many things. Energy, War, and the reasons leading up to war.

It takes on the neo-cons desire to invade Iran. This novel's story woven into the minds of mainstream America may help avoid the nightmarish future many fear.

This is why a growing coalition of truth activists and organizations have advocated that all who love peace and justice inform everyone they know of this unique mainstream novel, "The Shell Game," which can change the mainstream for the better.

The most recent addition to this growing coalition is Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

Joining the esteemed likes of famed theologian and author and 9/11 truth researcher and author, David Ray Griffin, Kevin Ryan, 911Truth.org, and many other respected voices for truth.

THE COALITION MESSAGE, RE: "THE SHELL GAME":

We, the undersigned, urge everyone seeking truth, peace and justice, to not only purchase this new novel, "The Shell Game," but also to email out this appeal to all you know who seek truth, peace and justice in the form of 9/11 truth coming out.In turn, please urge them to do the same with all their contacts and urge them to do the same.We can break 9/11 truth open if we work together and focus on this project for the next 30 days.

Today we have an amazing opportunity, if we work together, to launch 9/11 truth into a new mainstream American paradigm.In the formation of the global 9/11 truth movement there have been landmark moments that catapulted this truth movement forward:* Mike Ruppert's early work with copvcia.com and his crucial early research (which got me in this)* The first national truth conference, formed by Carol Brouillet/Ken Jenkins in San Francisco* The formation of 911Truth.org after that conference* The dissemination of the "Stop the 9/11 Cover Up" signs to groups nationwide (911visibility)* David Ray Griffin's earth shaking work* Professor Steven Jones physics research* Kevin Ryan’s blowing the whistle on inaccuracies of UL’s report to NIST* The release of Loose Change, which exploded the movement* The "Eleventh Day of Every Month" TruthAction.org Campaign* The release of PatriotsQuestion911.org * We Are Change’s national television exposure on 9/11 truth issues* The release of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, ae911truth.org

Today, we have an opportunity to explode 9/11 truth issues into the mainstream mind, in the form of a soon to be released popular action fiction novel by New York Times Best Selling Novelist, Steve Alten (stevealten.com).If we can get 30,000 copies of this profound novel purchased in the first month of its release, we can drive it to #1 on the New York Times best seller list.The 9/11 truth movement can do this, if we ALL push for it to happen.

Why is this such an incredible opportunity?1) It is written by a New York Times Best Selling novelist - He's established an "adopt-a-writer" program, that has connected him with hundreds of english departments/teachers in high schools all across America and donated many copies of his book to US troops overseas, with a huge audience there.2) Americans love action fiction (which "The Shell Game" definitely is)3) The publisher has already purchased prime display space in the front of Barnes & Noble and Borders stores for its release4) The author's webmaster is now creating a website for the book's release that will include major 9/11 truth websites, youtube video links, and recommended non-fiction reading on 9/11 (DRG, Ruppert, etc.)

We, the undersigned, urge everyone seeking truth, peace and justice, to not only purchase this new novel, "The Shell Game," but also to email out this appeal to all you know who seek truth, peace and justice in the form of 9/11 truth coming out.In turn, please urge them to do the same with all their contacts and urge them to do the same.We can break 9/11 truth open if we work together and focus on this project for the next 30 days.

Below is a review of "The Shell Game" by Janice Matthews, 911Truth.org Executive Director:

"Let me assure you, my friends, this is an incredible page-turner... a fantastic story that pulls you into the personal lives and deaths of the characters, while at the same time incorporating 9/11 truth and world history, especially relating to oil and Saudi Arabia, that most mainstream fiction readers just won't get from any other books. No wonder Steve is a #1 best-selling author--I was not be able to put this novel down -- it definitely kept me up late into the night!"

Authors Bio: By William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, 9/11 and Media Crimes" and also "Why the Jewish Community Should Demand 9/11 Truth."

"PHIL DONOHUE: Our producers were instructed to feature two conservatives for every liberal.BILL MOYERS: You're kidding."

"BILL MOYERS: IN DUMPING DONAHUE, NBC CITED RATINGS. BUT A BLOGGER GOT HIS HANDS ON AN INTERNAL MEMO AND THE PRESS PICKED IT UP.BILL MOYERS: Now that memo said, "Donohue presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity." Did you know about that memo at the time?PHIL DONOHUE: No. No. I didn't know about that till I read about it in The NEW YORK TIMES.BILL MOYERS: What did you think? What does that say to you? That dissent is unpatriotic?PHIL DONOHUE: Well, not only unpatriotic, but it's not good for business."

"about Murray Barr, a homeless alcoholic man in Reno, Nevada. Two local police officers, Steve Johns and Patrick O'Bryan, tracked chronic inebriates for six months and found that just one of them ran up a bill of a hundred thousand dollars at a single hospital. For the ten years he had been on the streets, Murray had run up a medical bill as large as anyone in Nevada…"

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Roots

Revelation 13

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy...

...And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?...

Mark 13

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.